Each week I scour articles, wading through the dogs, and bringing you the best insights to help product managers, developers, and innovators be heroes.

 

3 tips to embrace the tension between stable operations and innovation. “But if you’re solely focused on efficiency gains, the bottom line and preserving shareholder value, how can you simultaneously generate the pace of knowledge transfer and innovation required for sustained growth and competitive advantage? It might seem impossible for the financial and innovation sides of the house to coexist; however, many companies make it work successfully.” Read more from Business Insider http://www.businessinsider.com/lessons-cfos-can-learn-from-entrepreneurs-2015-11

What a Design Thinking workshop looks like – LA Innovation Week. “To celebrate Los Angeles Innovation Week, the Los Angeles Innovation Team (i-team) partnered with IDEO, a global leader in user-centered design, to create a series of four hands-on workshops to generate, prototype and test ideas to advance the team’s work in inclusive neighborhood revitalization.” Read more at Living Cities https://www.livingcities.org/blog/978-three-lessons-from-los-angeles-innovation-week

How to gain support in your company for your big ideas. “Innovation is a paradox for most of us. On the one hand, you are well aware that you have to take new roads before you reach the end of the present dead end street. On the other hand, it is risky. It takes a lot of time. And it takes a lot of resources. Research shows that only one out of seven innovation projects is successful. So saying yes to innovation is a step into the unknown.” Read more from Innovation Management http://www.innovationmanagement.se/2015/11/03/how-to-get-support-for-your-big-ideas/

Watch out for the corporate antibodies that kill innovation – case study. “Cereal-maker Kellogg’s tried to expand its market by acquiring a vibrant upstart. Things worked well until corporate antibodies took over.” Read more at ZDNet http://www.zdnet.com/article/large-company-innovation-gone-wrong-kashi-vs-kelloggs/

Product management vs product marketing – what is the difference? “Having gone through many years of reading job boards, consulting for product marketing teams at tech companies, working with product managers, and working on business education programs for these two roles, I put together a definitive guide with some clarity. Read more at B2C http://www.business2community.com/marketing/product-marketing-vs-product-management-01358933

The push and pull strategies of innovation. “In this spirit of using what we already have, let’s look at the two current main forms of innovation strategy. While each of these strategies alone won’t be enough to sustain growth, they can both teach us useful lessons about creativity.” Read more from Jeff DeGraff http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-degraff/innovating-innovation-str_b_8452190.html

10 ways leaders can foster innovation in their IT staff. “Here are concrete steps that IT leaders can take to produce a steady stream of innovations that could lead to business and tech breakthroughs.” Read more from ZDNet http://www.zdnet.com/article/ten-ways-to-prime-it-staff-for-innovation/

The case for being weird and having innovative creativity. “Non-conformity, novelty — however you define ‘weird’, it’s something that goes against what’s commonly accepted, and works. ‘Weird’ is seeing things differently. It’s connecting the dots where we normally wouldn’t.” Read more at Crew https://medium.com/who-what-why/why-being-weird-is-your-best-creative-trait-eb0d349fbbac

Infographic – 7 steps to discover disruptive innovation opportunities. “ …it isn’t simply improving an existing product. It’s about creating a whole new market. “ Read more at foundr http://foundrmag.com/disruptive-innovation/